Balzac, Second Study for Nude F (Balzac, deuxième étude pour le Nu F)
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
This is likely one of the final nude studies for the figure beneath the drapery in the completed Balzac monument. Instead of an aging, dissipated body, which the commission had criticized, Rodin turned to a more athletic and muscular figure. That he sought to portray a very specific conception of genius is evident in his decision to make the author’s right hand grip his erect penis, explicitly equating male sexual virility with artistic creativity. Balzac surely would have agreed: his wife recalled a letter in which he had once explained that he prepared himself to write his novels by “masturbating his brain.”
Caption
Auguste Rodin French, 1840–1917. Balzac, Second Study for Nude F (Balzac, deuxième étude pour le Nu F), 1896; cast 1979. Bronze, 37 x 16 x 15 1/2 in. (94 x 40.6 x 39.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Iris and B. Gerald Cantor, 84.77.10. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 84.77.10_bw.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Balzac, Second Study for Nude F (Balzac, deuxième étude pour le Nu F)
Date
1896; cast 1979
Geography
Place made: France
Medium
Bronze
Classification
Dimensions
37 x 16 x 15 1/2 in. (94 x 40.6 x 39.4 cm)
Signatures
Base: "A. Rodin"
Markings
Base: ".Georges Rudier./.Fondeur-Paris."
Credit Line
Gift of Iris and B. Gerald Cantor
Accession Number
84.77.10
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
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Frequent Art Questions
How did Rodin make these sculptures?
Rodin used the "sand casting" method. He would have created his intended form in clay, then built a mould around it using a mixture of special sand, salt, and a binding agent. When the mould was ready, he would remove the clay from the center and then pour liquid bronze into the mould. Unlike other bronze casting techniques available at the time, sand casting allows for the creation of multiples.Why do you have so many Rodin sculptures?
We received many of the Rodin works currently on view as a gift from the Cantor Foundation in 1980s. The Cantor Foundation is interested creating opportunities to further explore the works of Rodin and his contemporaries.Why is this naked guy headless? It seems like it must mean something!
This sculpture was a study for a monument honoring the 19th-century French writer Honore de Balzac. Rodin made many studies in preparation for a work, focusing on different aspects of the final statue. In this case, he was interested in modeling the body, rather than the head and features of Balzac. Rodin wasn’t too concerned about the integral nature of his figures - if he modeled a body part he liked, he would attach it to several projects he would be working on. In this case, he was modeling the body pose, and the head simply wasn't important, so he left it out. That way, he was able to mix and match works in a radically new way, paving the way for how the 20th century often combined-and-recombined works of art or repeated them for effect.
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